The House of Kennedy(105)



4 “Kennedys moved fast”: George Vecsey, “The Game Stopped,” New York Times, November 21, 1983.

5 “He never let up”: Chris Matthews, Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), 66.

6 “powerful and unsportsmanlike shove”: Ted Sorensen, “RFK Assassination: Aide Recalls Tragedy Repeated” and “Excerpt: ‘Counselor,’” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, June 5, 2008.

7 “somewhat hollow in his convictions”: Robert Barr, “RFK: Kid Who Lived to Tackle, Adult Who Lived for His Brother,” Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1988.

8 Senator McCarthy as Kennedy family friend: “RFK’s Enemies,” American Experience, PBS.org.

9 “sharing his father’s dislike of liberals”: Sorensen, “RFK Assassination.”

10 “politically dangerous”: Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life (New York: Simon & Schuster 2007), 74.

11 “Indian hand wrestling”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 77.

12 “became my mortal enemy”: Tye, Bobby Kennedy, 53.

13 “bug the little bastard”: “RFK’s Enemies,” American Experience, PBS.org.

14 “the horns just blaring”: Tye, Bobby Kennedy, 78–79.

15 “throw acid in the eyes of his six children”: Tye, 78.

16 “can you fix us some lunch?”: “Hickory Hill: RFK’s Virginia Home,” American Experience, PBS.org.

17 “made him a sympathetic figure”: Joe Scarborough, “The Metamorphosis of the Ruthless Bobby Kennedy,” Washington Post, July 22, 2016.

18 May 1963 Gallup poll: Lydia Saad, “Gallup Vault: A Look Back at Robert Kennedy,” Gallup, June 5, 2018.

19 “Bobby goes a little further”: Morning Joe staff, “An Excerpt from ‘The Revolution of Robert Kennedy,’” MSNBC.com, June 6, 2017.

20 “won’t be here by Christmas”: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, fortieth anniversary edition (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), 606.

21 “drink to the President of the United States”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, 606.

22 Bobby gets the call about JFK: Sheila Anne Feeney, “Robert Morgenthau Was with Bobby When He Got the News,” Newsday, November 21, 2013.

23 “shoots and kills the son of a bitch”: Thurston Clarke, The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days that Inspired America (New York: Henry Holt, 2008), 25.

24 “I thought something was wrong”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, 608.

25 Hoover says JFK’s been shot: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, 608.

26 “wasn’t the way”: Schlesinger Jr., 629.

27 “didn’t want to leave him”: Feeney, “Robert Morgenthau Was with Bobby.”

28 “About thirty minutes after”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, 608.

29 “Jack is dead”: Feeney, “Robert Morgenthau Was with Bobby.”

30 “I thought they would get one of us”: Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama (New York: Summit Books, 1984), 312.

31 “Did the CIA kill my brother?” Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, 317.

32 “most wonderful life”: Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life (New York: Simon & Schuster 2007), 277.

33 President Lyndon Johnson: Tye, Bobby Kennedy, 288.

34 “Why, God?”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, 611.





Chapter 27




1 “one of the toughest guys”: Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 488.

2 “much left for me”: Larry Tye, Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon (New York: Random House, 2016), 291.

3 Bobby’s silver cigarette case: Tye, Bobby Kennedy, 287.

4 “I have another brother”: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, fortieth anniversary edition (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), 613.

5 “natural for Bobby to take charge”: Tye, Bobby Kennedy, 289.

6 “all the things that Jack started”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, 612.

7 “I don’t have the heart for it”: Schlesinger Jr., 632.

8 “the significance of Jack’s death”: Maier, The Kennedys, 488.

9 “wild, informal mixture”: “Hickory Hill: RFK’s Virginia Home,” American Experience, PBS.org.

10 “a menagerie”: “Hickory Hill: RFK’s Virginia Home.”

11 “And if Bobby died”: Morning Joe staff, “An Excerpt from ‘The Revolution of Robert Kennedy,’” MSNBC.com, June 6, 2017.

12 Rosemary’s whereabouts: Evan Thomas, “The Fierce Rebellion and Compassion of Eunice Shriver,” Washington Post, April 13, 2018.

13 Jack’s possible visit to Rosemary in 1958: Liz McNeil, “Why Rosemary Kennedy’s Siblings Didn’t See Her for 20 Years After Her Lobotomy,” People, September 2, 2015.

14 “mentally retarded sister”: “Rosemary Kennedy, JFK’s Sister, Dies at 86,” NBCNews.com, January 8, 2005.

15 “give them a lollypop”: Kirk Johnson, “Reaching the Retarded: An Old Kennedy Mission,” New York Times, June 23, 1995.

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